Charcoal n' Chalk Female

Bringing the Blog up to speed. After having a total malfunction of my Laptop last year, it was a good time to return to traditional work whilst saving up for somet new tech. One of my favourite methods is using black charcoal and white chalk to create images on coloured paper/card, preferably a mid range tone or dull colour like grey is perfect. It was a while since last using this medium so my approach was a little slow and rusty but it got there in the end.

Step one: Using study reference draw outline of Image, being keen to get applying charcoal and chalk I kept this fast and loose, this may have lead to positioning and symmetry issues later but we live and learn.

Step two: Went about outlining hair, eyes and shaded areas with charcoal, and brightened skin by smudging lightly chalk dust, this was more than I originally intended almost drowning out the skin highlights but brought a illuminated look that worked out but I got the message, don't be too liberal with your chalk highlights.

Final Stage: So I continue adding light and dark building the image, following reference guides, the charcoal pencil was used from tighter details and the process often required smudging or erasing with charcoal eraser, but also household cotton buds (for ears) and tissue, you don't want to get too much on your hands and stain the image plus I think with the warmth and moisture of hands or fingers, using them as smudge tools is a little less predictable/controllable. Just finish when your happy or when its past 2am, like this one was.

Not using a great camera but I often like to add an Instagram filter on bits like this depending if I like the effect or not, You can check out @MCCANNOID there and follow me to see more! I'd love to hear any comments, critique or advice for future works using this media or just in general. Thanks.

Lets work outside and offline

OK, so not exactly what I would call 'work' or creative masterpieces but definitely good practice and some fun in the sun. Decided to paint with some watercolours and be creative with charcoal/chalk  and managed to get some nice sunburn in the process. Its interesting to see how my work looks traditionally, a little rusty I would say, but also that it could be improved with better preparation, more time and more sun (please).

A view from the back garden, drawing and watercolour.

Charcoal Image from scratch and imagination on card.

Bug Style Helmet Sketches...of course

I decided to take a break from the laptop yesterday and sit with folks and unwind with some TV but I brought my sketchpad and randomly doodled a few insect/spider based helmets over 1 A4 page with a black Biro , i changed the layout and added colour in Photoshop but the rough sketches remain the same.
I may throw up a few more sketches as I am still working on some paintings at the moment and need blog fodder so stay tuned.

I'm leaning towards 5 and 15, I could see them as rivals as some kind insect tech based super heroes (Mantis vs. Red Ant) just my imagination, 9 and 18 are interesting and could be developed also, anyway more of a blue sky project for fun. Let me know what you think, more little bits like this to come.

The Skull-Binder

A definite return to my dark side. This was a monster idea I had held originally in an iron aged based 'fantasy world' project I had created a long time ago...but as I drew initial sketches of this piece I realized that it was best suited to a different personal project I was working on, the crusades with demons (basically). Not really a ground breaking or original character I'll admit, but nothing like painting a bad ass brooding demon.

Here are the stages and the process of my working, I don't always work in this way so its by no means a prefect recipe and was often defined a little too much by mood, patience and music playlists.

Stage one: Hand drawn sketch on A4 paper, based on references i readily researched beforehand.
Stage two: Added grey base over drawing to add shade and light as a black and white value painting.
Stage three: lose the drawing, detailed value and paint, flip the image to check and correct the form.
Stage four: complete the value painting, its ok but flat/grey, added colour and experimenting with ideas.
Stage five: flatten the colours, burn/dodge to strengthen shadows/light, adjust sizes, paint background.
Stage six: finalize the piece, quick tidy and armor highlights, mist separator and lighten focus areas.

So that was that, suggestions, comments and critiques most welcome and for now onto the next one.

Irish Mythology: Finn and Sadv

So in December and January I picked up an old book on Irish myths and Legends, so old it was missing its cover and its pages were sandy in colour and musty in smell. I remember reading it ages ago and it set my mind alight with vivid images that gripped my imagination, so I decided to try and illustrate these, so there is more to come from this.

One of the stories was about Finn captain of the Fianna, an elite group of guards that served the High King and defended the shores of Ireland before Christian times. Finn as his name means was fair haired and handsome, he and the rest of Fianna would often go hunting game with their wolf hounds. On one occasion Finn's hounds chased a deer into some old enchanted woods, he  followed and soon found them at an opening, sitting and guarding the deer, as Finn approached the deer transformed into a beautiful woman, her name was Sadv, the Deer Goddess. Sadv had originally been trapped in deer form by a dark magician of the old age but the spell had broken in the presence of her true love, Finn.

After the painting was complete I was compelled to paint what Finn looked like and the expression on his face, partially to add more of a storytelling element and emotional aspect but also because I had the idea of doing a banner or background scene for a Facebook page which would have an accompanying profile image related to the scene.

In later Posts I will share the process of my digital painting progression to show how I ended with these results and to hopefully get tips, suggestions, ideas, feedback and critique by breaking down the stages. Again I will return to Irish Mythology as a theme/source for illustrative paintings, so stay tuned by following.

Blogs don't die, just forgotten.

Lets dust the Cobwebs off this Blog!

I considered the idea of starting a new blog....but instead decided to return to this one which I left like an abandoned car, luckily blogs don't rust or die, well this one won't as I've decided to breathe some life into it once again. After months Painting late into the night or procrastinating on Facebook its time I found an alternative means of  expression and a better way to spend my time into the wee hours of the night.

So in last few months I've been writing, drawing, painting (digital and traditional), and developing other bits of digital media for fun and communication, including a return to 3D, mostly all personal projects, so I will do my best to recap my selfish actives and current bits and research pieces of 2013.

And for new  readers, these are some of my other links:

Portfolio
Twitter
Deviant Art

Armed Transport

This started out as a perspective sketch for fun, I then coloured it in PS. I've meaning to do a few more concepts on Vehicles and Environments, working on solid forms and rendering hard surface, this may be combined with elements from Maya as I am currently practicing and moving more into 3D.